Total pages in book: 207
Estimated words: 196971 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 985(@200wpm)___ 788(@250wpm)___ 657(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 196971 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 985(@200wpm)___ 788(@250wpm)___ 657(@300wpm)
She had lodgings in Sixpence Inn, Lord Erou had gone on to tell her, and was last seen by the manager taking the stairs to her room some minutes past supper time. But the next morning, the housekeeper had found the room empty, with no evidence of a struggle.
When the carriage came to a stop in front of the gates of the south tower, Rhapsody was surprised to have the door opened by none other than the marquis himself.
"Welcome back, milady." After helping his pet down, Mihail was about to ask where she had gone when he detected a rather undesirable scent clinging distastefully to her skin. A man. Even worse, a man who with a seeming obsession with the women of his family. First it had been Zari, his brother's heartkeeper, and now Rhapsody?
Rhapsody belatedly noticed the hardened expression on the marquis' face. "Master?"
"Is there anything you'd like to tell me, milady?" An icy black rage had started consuming him from within, and it controlled his thoughts and words. Even dictated the way his heart was thudding against his chest.
"There is a missing tourist—-"
"Aside from that."
"I bought you a gift—-"
"I don't give a damn if you bought me a fucking gift." It was like hearing another being speak using his own voice, his rage taking a life of its own. "So I am asking you one last time. Is there anything you wish to say?"
Rhapsody had a hard time thinking clearly. "You truly do not care that I bought you a gift?"
"Goddammit, Rhapsody."
Her heart threatened to break. It was only the second time he had called her name, but now...it didn't...it wasn't what it used to be.
"The g-gift—-" She stopped speaking when she saw the blaze of anger in the marquis' eyes.
The rage in him saw no reason. Why did she keep on harping about that fucking gift? Why wouldn't she just tell him she had been with Lord Erou? He hadn't thought to ask why she had suddenly needed to visit her therapist yesterday, but what if that boy was the reason? What if that was why she could not answer him now, knowing that heartkeeping forbade any words of dishonesty between them?
He felt like he was about to explode, and it was only when he actually started a threatening step towards his pet and saw Rhapsody flinch as if she believed he would hit her—-
NO!
It was like waking up from a nightmare, reality extinguishing the rage in a blinding instant, but in its ashes despair whipped out.
Was this, he realized sickly, how he would end up hurting her without meaning to?
Rhapsody was stunned when the marquis turned his back on her and began walking away.
"Master?"
She waited for him to look back. To return to her side. She waited the whole night just to see him again and know that things would be fine once more.
But he never did.
And it was then she knew.
This tremendous pain that couldn't be anything else...
This pain that came from nowhere to rip her world apart and have her heart break into pieces...
She knew now.
She had her answer.
But it was as Lady Aurora said, and Rhapsody wished with all her heart such a moment had never come.
Chapter Fourteen
Mihail watched Rhapsody's silhouette cross the curtained windows in his bedchamber as dawn painted over the last mile of darkness in the skies. He had spent the entire night in Amstel Woods, keeping the other patrol guards company while his gaze strayed every so often to the south tower. It had been almost two in the morning when she retired, and now she was up again a mere three hours later. Sleep was probably his pet's only indulgence, and so for her to rise even before the sun had reclaimed its throne...
He had hurt her unforgivably last night, Mihail thought bleakly.
It was almost as if his demon half had overtaken the soul that she had gifted him with, and he had lashed out with needless cruelty. And he had not been able to stop, not even when he saw the pain that haunted her dark eyes and he saw her skin turn from ivory to something horribly pale.
Something was fucking wrong with him, and whatever it was, it would either drive Rhapsody away...or force him to stay out of her life.
He waited until she had left for her classes before coming up to shower and change into a fresh pair of clothes. On his way out, he spied the gift on the dresser, and he breathed hard. He unwrapped it carefully, and when he saw what it was...
The Art of Being A Pervert
Mihail closed his eyes. It was just like Rhapsody to mean well by giving him such a gift, and goddammit, he could not - would not - give her up without a fucking fight.
Before leaving the school, he was unable to resist the urge to check on him, needing to see - but wihout being seen - that she was indeed where she was supposed to be, and that was safe and unharmed within the school's walls. Eventually, he found her in the greenhouse with Peyton. Her friend was busy tending to several pots of cacti while Rhapsody had gloves up to her elbows while checking on a garden bed of poison ivy. She looked paler than usual, and his agitation grew even as the sight made his heart clench.